The NTSC format (National Television Standards Committee) 
                  was the standard-definition television format for the United States, 
                  Canada, Japan, Mexico and other countries. The NTSC video format 
                  definition (as applied to DVD home video products) is 30 (29.97) 
                  interlaced frames per second at 480 vertical lines of resolution per 
                  video frame. Each frame is composed of two fields, consisting of 
                  262.5 scan lines per field for a total of 525 scan lines.
                  Home video products for use in the United States and Canada needed 
                  to be in the NTSC format to properly display both picture and sound. 
                  VHS and DVD home video products from Europe are manufactured 
                  in the PAL television format and from France and Russia in the SECAM 
                  television formats and they will not properly image on NTSC television 
                  systems, as American media producers in the 1990s successfully 
                  pressured disc player manufacturers to restrict playback access to 
                  NTSC discs. 
                  As with other standard television formats, NTSC is being phased out 
                  for the generally universal DVB high-definition format. 
                  More details on the NTSC standard video format may be found on Wikipedia. 
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